#//Looking for a nice wasp nest to kick up to process the feelings welling up

[dutybcrne]

If he happens to get kicked out of the tavern earlier than his usual exits or even on nights he decides to skip out on drinking entirely, Kaeya will always make his way to Crepus’s grave and stay there for a spell. He asks for no forgiveness nor weeps, rather talks quite animatedly as if the man were still there, updating him on the recent happenings and joking lightly in his complaints about Diluc and the Knights. Sometimes, he can swear he almost hears the man’s voice in the wind.

That, is at long last when the tears start to fall.

[bdstation]

Sep. 

Guest Room

This is what a long weekend with the full Hyman crew looks like. Dad outlasted both the boys. Maybe that’s because he got to spend the weekend at the drafting table.

The weekend started off chill. We drove almost all the way across the city before realizing we’d left the drawings at the house. Critical mistake. So by the time we got to Healdsburg, the right thing to do was really just have a glass of wine and then head over to the Michilen starred dinner Dad had booked for us.

Old Healdsburg meets new Healdsburg. The rooftop bar had a full garden and gorgeous view of the rolling hills. Jim had forgotten his sunglasses and the waiter quickly offered him a selection of them. The toilets were heated. 4 hours later we had eaten and drank away the pre design charette jitters.

And those jitters weren’t for not. The problem with having an architect over to your house is that they see everything. Every outlet without a plate. Every whole that needs patching. Every door that’s missing. Or window without a screen. Shiny paint instead of mat. Entire walls that aren’t touching the ceiling. Cords running to nowhere. Places where the wood is rotting and ceiling is likely leaking...ok so a lot of this is unique to Bonny Doon Station but you get the point.

Jim and I already have a new normal. I’d covered the floor of bedroom 2 with a tarp because after pulling the carpet up I realized we had a small bit of asbestos tile under there + about an inch of dirt and who knows what else. The original plan was to get someone in there to do the official California asbestos removal but the guy never showed so we opted for option 2: seal it up. I put on a hazmat suit and gas mask. Got the shop vac out. And sucked up all the dirt and dust and rat pellets. Then we covered the floor with the cheapest vinyl home depot sells, duct taped it to the wall so no asbestos particles could come out and carpeted the damn thing. Throw in a wall clean + paint job + incense and boom - new room!

Throughout the weekend there was a bit of scope creep. Like when Dad decided we needed to fix the leaking toilet. It started out with a simple Home depot run and inner toilet replacement parts but quickly escalated to needing a sawza.

The other addition that was desperately needed was Kelly’s organizational skills. While I was using the kitchen cupboards to store our growing arsenal of cleaning supplies and tools, Jim was determined to have everything on the table where he could see them. Kelly solved the problem with propper racks and buckets and vuajla! We have structure to the chaos. Also. This woman hustles. I got out painted and out cleaned by her all weekend!

My highlight was the drawings Dad did. We had a temporary drafting table set up on saw horses that got the job done. By the end of the weekend Dad had drawn the existing floor plan...which actually doesn’t look so bad on paper, the pumphouse site...if only we had clean water coming out of the well, and a vision for what the house wants to be. A little visioning certainly helps keep the momentum up.

There were also great breaks for beer. Like the live music we caught at my favorite brewery...until Bruce tried to bit some lady and got us kicked out. And you can always count on a weekend ending at Mcrostie to seal the deal.

We left absolutely wrecked. I had to take the next week off of everything. Slept 11 hours a night the next 4 days. And then it was time to turn it back around and head back up!

This time with our first friends Rowin and Vick + baby Frankie sleepover. That’s how you know you’re really making progress! It was nice having Frankie to slow us down a bit. With the four of us we got through a serious daddy long leg / cob web / wasp nest (inside...seriously) clean out + painted the biggest and tallest wall in the house. Plus we hung some shower curtains up where doors should be and had the electrician ground the box that was waiting to kill us all. The biggest improvement was Jim’s demanding we put custom window screens in. I thought the $500 was a huge waste of money and was I wrong. Holy shit. No more wasps in the house! Screens are amazing.

Thank god for the wineries. There is nothing better than getting after it all day, taking a shower (with your mouth closed so you don’t get ecoli) and then bouncing over to yet another gorgeous vineyard with your crew for a lightly chilled pinot noir.

It was all I need to head into this week guns blazing. I got my spreadsheet out and began the GC hunt. Researched about 10 of them, emailed 8, interviewed 4 and we are on our way to a shortlist. My current panic attack is the $700 - $2000 a square foot quote they are all giving me which is making this whole idea seem totally unrealistic.

On the other hand, things are starting to come together. The money in escrow for electrical is now spent and requirements checked off the list. We’ve got drawings for the pumphouse with the surveyor coming out to mark property boundaries and concrete contractor coming to give us quote.

Even the well situation is becoming more interesting. On the plus side the water geologist reviewed historical drill sites and suspects we may have alternative well sites. Next step is to test soil. Also we likely have a spring under the big grass bump in the paddock...which Jim thinks he can drill out with an Ore?  Water is the new gold. The down side is we can’t dredge the well because there is an oak tree root clogging it...which Jim thinks he can cut out with a log cutter thing that goes 25 ft down. If Jim keeps all 10 fingers and toes by the end of this project I’ll consider it a win. The saga continues.

My biggest take away this week is the more we can do ourselves throughout this whole process the more fun we are going to have. I’m also getting more practice with ambiguity and trying not to react to every high and low because its all constantly changing.

The biggest moment of joy I had was feeling so happy to see Jim totally in his element. I’ve never seen him wanting to learn like he’s wanting to right now. This project brings out what I love best about him. His independent spirit, I can do anything confidence, and eternal optimism. I’d buy this house again just to give space and time to nurture that.

This is Dad’s “what the shit!?” face. I think the bathroom was thinking the same thing. Within an hour or two Dad had ripped out the bathroom toilet, vanity, sinc, shower and flooring.

To be fair - I thought this bathroom was fully condemned. It was seriously disgusting. I wouldn’t even go in there. The floor was covered in mud, the toilet didn’t work, the shower was falling off the wall and covered in mold and backed up drain gunk. The walls were painted gray with a layer of sparkle that sort of looked like nail polish glitter. Sink and vanity were holding on by a thread.

As is typically with this house - things below the surface were a bit wonky as well. The shower drain wasn’t the standard distance from the wall so the previous owner cut out the bottom of the floor and slid the shower tray under the wall. The result? Rotted through floor boards. Those puppies had to be totally ripped out.  

So the job of the weekend? About 15 trips to Home Depot. Power tools. Plumbing. Floorboards. New vinyl. New toilet. Strapping the water heater to the wall (safety?). Painting (3 coats to cover the glitter). New shower. New sinc. New vanity. And voila. Bathroom #2 is online.

But not without a little scope creep. To be fair weren’t supposed to replace the shower this weekend but who could resist. The real scope creep is when Dad had me pull the piece of wood off the ceiling in the hallway to reveal some good old black mold where a leak in the roof clearly rotted all the way through. Lovely.

[bonnydoonstation]

This is what a long weekend with the full Hyman crew looks like. Dad outlasted both the boys. Maybe that’s because he got to spend the weekend at the drafting table. 

The weekend started off chill. We drove almost all the way across the city before realizing we’d left the drawings at the house. Critical mistake. So by the time we got to Healdsburg, the right thing to do was really just have a glass of wine and then head over to the Michilen starred dinner Dad had booked for us. 

Old Healdsburg meets new Healdsburg. The rooftop bar had a full garden and gorgeous view of the rolling hills. Jim had forgotten his sunglasses and the waiter quickly offered him a selection of them. The toilets were heated. 4 hours later we had eaten and drank away the pre design charette jitters. 

And those jitters weren’t for not. The problem with having an architect over to your house is that they see everything. Every outlet without a plate. Every whole that needs patching. Every door that’s missing. Or window without a screen. Shiny paint instead of mat. Entire walls that aren’t touching the ceiling. Cords running to nowhere. Places where the wood is rotting and ceiling is likely leaking...ok so a lot of this is unique to Bonny Doon Station but you get the point. 

Jim and I already have a new normal. I’d covered the floor of bedroom 2 with a tarp because after pulling the carpet up I realized we had a small bit of asbestos tile under there + about an inch of dirt and who knows what else. The original plan was to get someone in there to do the official California asbestos removal but the guy never showed so we opted for option 2: seal it up. I put on a hazmat suit and gas mask. Got the shop vac out. And sucked up all the dirt and dust and rat pellets. Then we covered the floor with the cheapest vinyl home depot sells, duct taped it to the wall so no asbestos particles could come out and carpeted the damn thing. Throw in a wall clean + paint job + incense and boom - new room! 

Throughout the weekend there was a bit of scope creep. Like when Dad decided we needed to fix the leaking toilet. It started out with a simple Home depot run and inner toilet replacement parts but quickly escalated to needing a sawza. 

The other addition that was desperately needed was Kelly’s organizational skills. While I was using the kitchen cupboards to store our growing arsenal of cleaning supplies and tools, Jim was determined to have everything on the table where he could see them. Kelly solved the problem with propper racks and buckets and vuajla! We have structure to the chaos. Also. This woman hustles. I got out painted and out cleaned by her all weekend! 

My highlight was the drawings Dad did. We had a temporary drafting table set up on saw horses that got the job done. By the end of the weekend Dad had drawn the existing floor plan...which actually doesn’t look so bad on paper, the pumphouse site...if only we had clean water coming out of the well, and a vision for what the house wants to be. A little visioning certainly helps keep the momentum up. 

There were also great breaks for beer. Like the live music we caught at my favorite brewery...until Bruce tried to bit some lady and got us kicked out. And you can always count on a weekend ending at Mcrostie to seal the deal. 

We left absolutely wrecked. I had to take the next week off of everything. Slept 11 hours a night the next 4 days. And then it was time to turn it back around and head back up! 

This time with our first friends Rowin and Vick + baby Frankie sleepover. That’s how you know you’re really making progress! It was nice having Frankie to slow us down a bit. With the four of us we got through a serious daddy long leg / cob web / wasp nest (inside...seriously) clean out + painted the biggest and tallest wall in the house. Plus we hung some shower curtains up where doors should be and had the electrician ground the box that was waiting to kill us all. The biggest improvement was Jim’s demanding we put custom window screens in. I thought the $500 was a huge waste of money and was I wrong. Holy shit. No more wasps in the house! Screens are amazing. 

Thank god for the wineries. There is nothing better than getting after it all day, taking a shower (with your mouth closed so you don’t get ecoli) and then bouncing over to yet another gorgeous vineyard with your crew for a lightly chilled pinot noir. 

It was all I need to head into this week guns blazing. I got my spreadsheet out and began the GC hunt. Researched about 10 of them, emailed 8, interviewed 4 and we are on our way to a shortlist. My current panic attack is the $700 - $2000 a square foot quote they are all giving me which is making this whole idea seem totally unrealistic. 

On the other hand, things are starting to come together. The money in escrow for electrical is now spent and requirements checked off the list. We’ve got drawings for the pumphouse with the surveyor coming out to mark property boundaries and concrete contractor coming to give us quote. 

Even the well situation is becoming more interesting. On the plus side the water geologist reviewed historical drill sites and suspects we may have alternative well sites. Next step is to test soil. Also we likely have a spring under the big grass bump in the paddock...which Jim thinks he can drill out with an Ore?  Water is the new gold. The down side is we can’t dredge the well because there is an oak tree root clogging it...which Jim thinks he can cut out with a log cutter thing that goes 25 ft down. If Jim keeps all 10 fingers and toes by the end of this project I’ll consider it a win. The saga continues. 

My biggest take away this week is the more we can do ourselves throughout this whole process the more fun we are going to have. I’m also getting more practice with ambiguity and trying not to react to every high and low because its all constantly changing. 

The biggest moment of joy I had was feeling so happy to see Jim totally in his element. I’ve never seen him wanting to learn like he’s wanting to right now. This project brings out what I love best about him. His independent spirit, I can do anything confidence, and eternal optimism. I’d buy this house again just to give space and time to nurture that.